Calling Disciples
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I am one of the pastors here. We are in Matthew chapter 4, so if you'll grab one of the Bibles, it'll be on page 472. If you grab one of the Bibles, it's on the pew near you. This morning, the title of our sermon, the title of this message is The King and His Call.
The King and His Call. Did I sound like a real preacher? I'm working on it. If we move forward with this union with KC First Baptist, we'll be preaching to real Baptists, and so I've got to practice and get ready. We're going to be starting in verse 12. Actually, today we're going to walk through this text, and then we will be heading over there.
So if this is your first time, usually joining us on a Sunday, usually what happens is when everything's over, we hang out for a good bit of time. There's a lot of talking, a lot of hanging out. We've cleaned up everything, put everything away, and there are still people just standing around talking to each other. And so that won't happen today, though. So today we're going to finish up and say, everybody, sprint out of here.
And there's a few things that we'll have to do real quick to get out of here. So if you feel like that was super weird, everybody just took off. It's because we're all going to go eat. I actually talked with Miss Louise. She said they got the room ready, and they have put down different colored placemats, and you're supposed to sit at a designated color. That way we don't all sit together with at least breaking a rule.
So the goal being that we would get around. Your job today is to get to eat a nice meal, but really to make a friend and try to get to know somebody over there at KC First Baptist as we continue this conversation with them about is the Lord leading here and what it would look like for us to be one church family together. So we are going to look at, though, this morning, Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is beginning to call disciples. He's beginning his ministry. So last week we saw the temptation of Jesus where he withstood the temptation of the enemy that he did not sin.
He was tempted, but he didn't sin. And now he is beginning his ministry. And so we're picking up in verse 12. It says, now when he, that's Jesus, heard that John had been arrested, that's John the Baptist, he withdrew into Galilee. And I know you're thinking, just like a Baptist, to get arrested. That sounds true.
What happened was John was preaching this gospel of the kingdom and then he began to actually call out Herod the king. This is a different Herod from when Jesus was a baby. This is Herod Antipas. It's his son. But he begins to call him out for some of his behavior.
And so not a thing that you really get to do in a place with a king. We get to say whatever we want to about our president. He can't just arrest people, but they didn't get to. So he starts calling out the king for some of his behavior and some of the things he had done that were wrong. And the king has him arrested. We'll find out more about that in Matthew chapter 14.
But it says, when John was arrested, Jesus moved. So it says, leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. So if you look at this map, that's Mediterranean Sea, Jordan River's running down here. This is where he was. It was in that area, kind of in the Judea area, close-ish to Jerusalem. And then he moves up to Capernaum by the sea of Galilee.
Now, it doesn't seem exactly like he's running from Herod. If you'll just leave that map up for a minute. It doesn't seem like he's running from Herod because that's all Herod's territory. So in some ways, it just seems like he, and when John is arrested and John kind of moves off the scene, Jesus begins his ministry and he begins it here. And Matthew tells us the reason he starts there is that he's fulfilling prophecy. So John the Baptist is preaching this kingdom message.
And when they come to him and they say, who are you? He says, I'm not the guy. The guy that's coming after me, I don't even, I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes. I'm not even allowed to touch his feet. He's so far above me. And then Jesus steps on and is the guy.
He's the prophesied one. He is the one who's stepping in as the king to fulfill what has been written in the Old Testament, to fulfill the promises of God for the people of Israel. And Jesus is doing that. So that's what it says. It says he moved to the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. And those are two of the tribes of Israel.
So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. And he quotes. It says, This is Isaiah 9. If you actually go read in our Bibles, Isaiah 9, it's written a little bit differently. And that is because it's most likely that Matthew, who was Jewish, took his Jewish Bible. And when he was writing his gospel, he just did his own Matthew translation of that text into Greek for his purposes to highlight what that text is saying.
So it's slightly different than when we sat with the original Hebrew and wrote it out in English. He writes it out this way. They're translating the Greek here. Him translating Hebrew to Greek and then us to English. And then we went back and translated it from Hebrew in Isaiah 9. But it's saying the same thing.
And what he's highlighting is a couple of things that I think are very interesting. He's saying Jesus starts. He's a light shining in a dark place. In Galilee of the Gentiles. So he's that's called foreshadowing.
He's highlighting for us that Jesus is not just going to be here for the Jewish people. That's going to come out more fully later. But Matthew's just kind of tipping his hand a little bit. But he's also highlighting that he starts in Zebulun and Naphtali in these northern tribes. That was the first place that the kingdom began to fall apart. That's the that's where the Assyrians came and took.
So they came down into the north and they took the northern tribes. And so Jesus is stepping in and he's starting in a place where everything fell apart, where everything was broken, where everything was dark, and he's becoming this king. He's stepping forward to complete and fulfill this prophecy. And if you read the rest of this, I'm going to read it for you from Isaiah 9. It says, You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy.
They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and of his peace, there will be no end.
On the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth, and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. So he says he's fulfilling prophecy, and he highlights which prophecy, and then if you read that, he's saying he's the king. This is the one coming in the line of David who is going to fulfill this prophecy. What he does is he starts, where everything's broken, where everything's dark, and he is a light shining in a dark place. And some of us became Christians, placed our faith in Jesus, and we knew that.
That's exactly why we came to him. We said, I'm in a dark place. I'm broken. I'm busted. I'm at the end of my rope, and I need you. I need you to redeem me.
You went to him saying, I need you to shine light here, because I'm in the dark. I'm overwhelmed. I'm crushed. And there are others who try to become Christians not from that position. Who try to place their faith in Jesus, and in a much more clean, controlled fashion. So you try to, you know, maybe you want just this area of your life.
He can mess with that. Like, I'd like my children to behave, and if Jesus can figure that out, okay, I'll follow him. I'd like my finances to be good, and if Jesus can handle that, okay, I need my health to be okay. But there's this other stuff that we just want to keep in the dark. It's almost like we think we're Mufasa, and he's Simba. And we bring him up, and we say, everywhere the light touches is your kingdom.
But Jesus says, what about that shadowy place over there? We try to look at Jesus and say, you must never go there. That's my personal business. Like, we just, we want to look at him and say, you're not allowed there, but the reality is, Jesus goes to the dark place. Like, as soon as you invite Jesus in, he goes, I'm heading over there, and I've got some work to do. And some of us have fought that as a losing battle, where there's this thing that we're trying to hold on and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's mine, and that's not how Jesus works.
And when Jesus comes in, he goes where it's dark, he goes where it's broken, and he begins to restore and to redeem as a conquering king. And sometimes it's painful, but it's very, very good. So let's keep going. It says, from that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So let's see this for a second.
This is exactly what John the Baptist preached. So John the Baptist preached, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He got arrested, and Jesus was like, I'm going to start preaching. What should I say? The exact same thing. Now, when you're in a kingdom, and you publicly begin announcing, everyone change how you are.
That's what repent means. Surrender. Change. Feel sorrow. Be different. Change from your sin.
Run from your sin. Change. And you begin to proclaim, in a kingdom, a kingdom is coming. This has political implications. There's a reality to, this is kind of a dangerous message to walk around in a kingdom proclaiming. For you to act as if there's a new kingdom coming, but that's exactly what Jesus is doing.
And Matthew just said, hey guys, he's the king. And so Jesus begins to proclaim, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now let's talk for just a second about the kingdom of heaven, and how they would have heard this, and understood this. They wanted the kingdom of heaven. In reality, so do we. So does our entire culture.
We have this longing for, we're able to understand that this world is broken, that there are things that are wrong with our surroundings, that things don't work the way they ought to, and there's this longing in us to have them fixed. This is what we do. We argue about how do we best get to, now some people aren't going to call it the kingdom of heaven, but that's what we're ultimately working for, where things work, where there's no injustice, where there's no crime, there's no poverty. Even as we argue about guns in America, the end of the line, everybody hopes, is that people aren't randomly shot with guns.
It's an argument about how to get there. Do we take them all away? Do we just arm everyone? Can't shoot me if I shoot you first? Nobody can shoot if nobody has guns. But we're still trying to, the ultimate goal would be that this would work.
That this would be good. That there would be some form of peace, there would be some form of happiness. And then when he proclaimed this, he's saying all the prophecies that we've seen coming, that you've heard about, that the lion will lay down with the lamb, that we'll take all of our weapons of warfare, and that we'll turn them into farming tools, that there will be joy, that there will be peace, that there will be no more. This prophecy that we just read, that the enemy, the oppressor, will no longer, the rod will be taken out of his hand, he won't have any power, all that was used for warfare will be taken away, that there will be joy, that there will be hope, there will be peace.
He's proclaiming that, that's the kingdom. You want that. If you could just say, look if my house could just be, as if it were in the kingdom. Where we got along, where there was joy, where there wasn't strife, where there wasn't pain, there was no tears, there was no mourning. He's proclaiming this, he's walking around saying, this kingdom has come. And so if it was just that, if it was just to be happy, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It's imminent, it's present, it's walking, it's marching forward. But that's not the message. The message is, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So I've got bad news. You're not welcome in the kingdom. You don't fit.
That's the assumption with that statement. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Meaning the kingdom is coming and you aren't a good citizen of it. See, the assumption when we talk about politics, when I talk about politics, when I would be arguing with somebody or whatever, my assumption is, your assumption is, when somebody puts a Facebook post or rant, depending on how they wrote it, depending on where they placed it, their assumption is, I'm one of the good ones. People thought like me, if they acted like me, they understood what I understood, if they saw what I saw, then we'd all be fine.
We'd all get along. If everyone would just read my somewhat incoherent Facebook post. You don't know exactly my point, but you know I'm angry. I mean it. If you would just read this and know exactly what I meant for it to mean, then we'd, harmony. We'd all be doing well.
That's the assumption. If somebody started proclaiming to you, repent for the kingdom of Bernie Sanders is at hand. Repent. Trump is president. Change your ways. The assumption would be, you don't fit.
You need to change so that you can fit. And their assumption would be that they already did. But Jesus is proclaiming this, a kingdom that he's the king of, and he's telling you, you don't fit. If you had a perfect kingdom, if there was a family that was a perfect family, perfect, sinless, and they adopted you, that family is now messed up. That's how that works. There are no jails in the kingdom of heaven, but if they just let me in, they'd have to build one.
I would mess that place up. I would be like, why don't y'all have speed limits? And they'd be like, speed what? I'd be like, I got it. Never mind. And in a week, they'd post speed limit signs because there's one nut riding around here with reckless abandonment.
Like, you know what I'm saying? We wouldn't fit. So he says, repent for the kingdom of heaven and there's something in us that wants to assume, yeah, that's for the bad people. And let me tell you, you are right. But it's quite possible that you made the bad people category too small.
That is for the bad people. But there aren't bad people and good people. There are bad people and Jesus. Welcome to the bad people. You aren't allowed in the kingdom. This is the most exclusive message that can be proclaimed.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Everyone who hears the voice of Jesus has to change. You are not welcome. You do not fit. And it is the most inclusive message ever proclaimed. Because everybody who repents, you're welcome.
The only way to exclude yourself from the kingdom is to think that you already deserve to be in it. If you think you're in, you're out. That's why when the Pharisees showed up, John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers and said, who told you to flee? Y'all don't think wrath's coming. Who told you to flee? Which Pharisee looked at you and said, we better change?
If you think you're in, you're out. And if you know you should be out, you get to be in. The person who comes forward and says, I don't deserve this. I have not earned this. I am not good enough. I am not welcome.
Jesus says, you're ready. Join the kingdom. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's the message to everybody. And that is an exclusive message. You are not welcome unless you realize you're not welcome.
And then it's the most inclusive message you'll ever hear. Then you get to be brought in. Jesus makes us deserving as we repent. As we walk forward and say, I don't deserve this. He fulfills this as he dies on the cross for our sin. It's a kingdom that's unfulfilled.
He's proclaiming this message, but ultimately we're going to learn how this works. is that he's going to take everything we needed to repent of and he's going to absorb the wrath for it. He's going to take the punishment for it so that we might be brought in. So I'm sorry. Actually, I can't. I'm not sorry. If you're, if you thought you were one of the good ones, I hope that, I hope that you understand that you are not.
And if you want people to get close to you, join a community group. They'll help point it out. You just don't have enough friends who love you. If you still think you've got everything together, someone needs to, to tell you about it. If you're married, you know, probably someone's told you. You have a roommate probably did the same thing for you.
But since we're all failures, we all get to be welcomed in if we'll repent. But he keeps going. That's his general call, but we're about to see this specific call. It says, while walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, that's a rock, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. I always appreciate how Matthew wrote that. He's like, there's like a twist in it, like he leaves us hanging for a second.
They were throwing nets in the sea. They were fishermen. It's like, oh, okay, that was weird before then. It's like, they were fighting bulls, for they were bullfighters. That's kind of how he wrote it. So that's what he writes it out.
He says, they're casting net in the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately, they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. Immediately, they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Jesus walks around. He proclaims this general message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he's walking by the sea. He sees two brothers working. And he walks up to them and says, follow me, I will make you fishers of men. Seems as if he probably just began walking off.
Because they dropped what they were doing and followed him. If he had stood there, I think they probably would have stood there too. But he was just like, you, you, follow me. And they do. Now, Matthew writes this on purpose so that we feel the abruptness of this. This was abrupt.
John tells us that they had kind of heard about Jesus, knew a little bit about him through John the Baptist's ministry. They had met him. There was a little bit of, but this is the moment when they really kind of said, okay, we're going to follow you. And he hadn't done things to really prove he's been proclaiming this message. It feels like he just made eye contact and they kind of felt like they had to say yes. He does, he Acts like a king.
If you're watching a movie and a king rides up and then he goes to a town and he sees a farmer and he says, join me. War is upon us. The farmer person says, yes sir, king sir. Not, well, I'll come in the middle of something. That's the way Jesus rolls up and just says, follow me. And they're like, okay.
And he calls specific people. He actually begins to interact with and intersect their everyday lives and their trajectory of their life is changed forever. And this is kind of how it feels that he still works. Like, there's some of you who maybe feel like, I became a Christian because I heard this message. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I began to learn what the kingdom was.
I began to learn how I could repent. I began to learn who Jesus was and I came and I said, I need to repent. I need to come forward. I need to lay this down. I need you to take my sin. I need to be free of it.
I realize I don't bring anything to the table. I'm not one of the good ones. And there are other people, if you talk to enough Christians, if you're not a Christian, you start asking people. Some people will say, yeah, that's kind of my story. And there are other people who will tell a story that sounds a lot more like this. I was minding my own business.
Jesus rolled up. I don't know. I'm following him now. He just kind of told me to. And it felt like I had to. That's the way that works.
There's this little bit of like, I just, I don't know. It was like, there's some people who will tell stories about if churches would do altar calls all the time. There's stories of people who said they were doing one and they just felt like the Holy Spirit put them in a headlock. And it was like, I really felt like I had to walk down and say I'm going to follow Jesus or I was probably just going to die. I don't really, felt like the alternative wasn't a good one. And that's kind of what happens here.
He comes to these fishermen and he tells them and he's very disruptive. So that's the first thing is that he says, follow me. We're going to just kind of take this statement and look at it because this is what it works like. You follow him that they would drop what they're doing. Follow him meant where he went, they went. What he did, they did.
If he retreated and prayed, they'd retreat and pray. If he fasted, they fasted. If he ate, they ate. If he ministered, they ministered. That's it. I love that it says, casting their nets into the sea for they were fishermen.
There's nothing amazing about a fisherman. It's not the most glorious. It's not terrible. Blue collar, normal. He said to them, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
So that's two of the fishermen left nets. Then going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Now they're all fishermen. It says they were all holding on to nets but it says Peter and Andrew left nets and it says that James and John left a boat and their father. The reality is we may be coming from similar places but we're all going to feel like we left something different to follow Jesus. That there are some things we had to give up.
We couldn't hold on to anymore. And what he calls them to is probably not something they had ever really been dreaming about. He's changed the whole trajectory of their life. I don't think when he said I'll make you fishers of men they were like about time. Catching fish you've got to catch too many. I've been saying for a long time if we catch people they're bigger.
I don't think Andrew looked at Peter and said told you million dollar idea. He's tagging in on something they understood fishing but he's going to transition their entire life to something else that he's taking them and changing them and this is what it looks like. You don't get to look the same after Jesus calls you. And they have to follow him they have to do what he says. So for us it's a little different than for them.
I think in some ways it's a little simpler for them because you wake up where's Jesus? He's walking that way. Let's walk that way. Where's Jesus? He's staying put. He's praying.
We just we get to you lay eyes on him and you you do what he does. And for us you need to wake up you need to open your Bible. You need to learn how to walk with the Spirit. You see if you watch if you read the Gospels they follow Jesus around. If you read the book of Acts the Spirit sends them around. If you read the book of Acts and you just look at where it says the Holy Spirit it'll say the Holy Spirit sent them here the Holy Spirit commissioned them to that the Holy Spirit told them they couldn't go there the Holy Spirit like we if you're a believer open your Bible and learn how to walk with the Spirit but every day it ought to be about what they were doing which is opening the Bible and saying where to?
What do you have for me? What do you want for me? Learning how to walk and follow Jesus but life fundamentally changes as we do that. So he says follow me. Then he says I will make you fishers of men.
Their job keep their eyes on Jesus. His job change them. Their job keep their eyes on Jesus keep in step see where he's going go with him. His job to fundamentally remake them. He's going to turn them into something different. This is the same thing that happens with us.
Go with him. His job to fundamentally remake them. He's going to turn them into something different. This is the same thing that happens with us. As we place our faith in Jesus we're supposed to keep our eyes on Jesus but he makes us new. That he changes us. He goes to work in our souls. This is what 2 Corinthians says it will be on the screen. 2 Corinthians 5 we're going to read 14, 15 and 17 it says for the love of Christ
Controls us because we have concluded this that one has died for all therefore all have died and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. When Jesus called them he had not yet proven what he was going to do it had not fully been confirmed it had not been laid out when he calls us he's already died
He's already risen he's already conquered the grave there's hope for us and what he says is that we because we're Christians now because you place your faith in Jesus we know that when he died we all died when he rose we all rose and now it says therefore a verse later if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come
Come follow me and I will make you new that's what he does and guys this is so fun to watch in other people it's kind of hurtful sometimes when it's you but let's just talk about other people for a second as we get to see people in our group meet Jesus it's so fun to watch how they change and sometimes it really does feel like
Spiritually there's them wanting sin but having Jesus remake their heart and he's just dragging them along and they can't even explain it you're like you're different and they're like I know it's so weird like I don't know like part of me wants that part of me wants this and it feels like Jesus is winning and then when you're walking through that sometimes you're seeing how he works in you
And how he changes you and how he pulls you along and sometimes it's painful but he makes us new and he does this all at once when you believe that you die with him your sin is gone and he remakes you and he makes you new that if you were to die at that moment and you stood before God you'd be a new creation but he also the process of sanctification means that he does this slowly over time functionally in our lives and that ultimately he's going to make us into new creations here that our trajectory
Has changed our life has changed and that he has claimed us and nothing will be the same again he says I will make you fishers of men so he's going to do it he's going to accomplish it he's going to change them he's changing their trajectory and then he says I will make you fishers of men so they understood fishing alright so if you came along you met Peter and Andrew
And they were sitting in the ancient Israel version of an Adirondack chair and they had a net laid out in front of them in the sand and you said what you doing and they said fishing for what fish I'm I'm not a fisherman I don't want to step on your toes feels like this is an ineffective way to go about that you're like well it was real hard to get in a boat
Early try to find where the fish were you can't really see them under the water you had to tend to the nets all the time they got kind of gross so we just thought if we laid the nets out here we wouldn't have to fool with all the extra stuff that goes along with the difficulty of fishing and maybe we could catch some fish this way and we'd at least be able to see them coming so the reality is when he said you're going to be
Fishers of men that immediately triggered a bunch of stuff that made sense to them they understood that means we've got to go to them we've got to plan ahead we have to think we have to intentionally put ourselves in a place for that to work this is going to be hard work if they had been farmers he might would have said we're going to start farming
For men but he says it in a way that they would have understood that they were going to have to go out of their way to try to see this happen and that's the reality that as he works in us we want more people to meet Jesus as he changes us we want more people to have what we have and that means
We have to get around people and get out of what is comfortable and normal for us that we might see them come to believe in him he's saying we're going to go get more people for this kingdom you're going to walk around with me and we're going to invite more people in and that's really good news and it means that if we are Christians
We're called to the same thing that he's going to change us and that we're going to go around and try to see more people come into this you ever watching a movie and some people are hiking and they're in the woods maybe like the Appalachian Trail they come up on a log cabin and there's like smoke coming out of the chimney and the music's
Changed so we already know this isn't going to go well plus you probably know what type of movie you're watching you know this is all right it's getting tense door opens crazy old guy steps out beard spittle gun every time I ever see that I think that's the life if I could just live in the woods by myself on a mountain
Play a harmonica not have my wife say quit playing that harmonica she can come but in this imaginary thing she likes the way I play the harmonica but just not have to know people not have to be around people that when I was in high school and summer came I would say bye to my friends they were my actual friends and then I would see them again when school started
And I would not think about them the entire summer I didn't even notice they were gone Jordan Surratt and I have conversations like this every once in a while and you can watch those words physically hurt him if you don't know Jordan Surratt just imagine a person who has way too many friends I would love to live on some land we moved to
Columbia South Carolina where it's like $30,000 an acre from a place where it was like $3,000 we live in a neighborhood where I have intentionally knocked on all my neighbors doors harassment to try to get to know them when I feel no intrinsic desire on my own to know anyone
I would just shave my head real short just with the thing the little clippers because that's easier for me but I've been told that it makes me harder to talk to and also look like a white nationalist or something so I grow my hair out and psychotically mess with it all the time we're in a
Community group that we're committed to relationships that we've built that they're good for our souls we live in a place where I don't feel like we're allowed to move from our neighborhood both my wife and I would rather just live in the middle of nowhere and we do this because we believe that there are people who do not know Jesus and one
Of the best ways for us to get to know them is to live near them and knock on their doors and harass them to find out where they are to be where they are we intentionally moved to plant a church because we felt like the Lord told us to moved to a place where we will not own land
I mean a little bit but not like land like I have to like wear clothes walking around outside my house I grew up in the woods you didn't have to I mean it's optional and I think we'll do this for the rest of our lives and I've told Anna I've said I think maybe maybe the Lord will let us
Live far away from people in heaven and maybe in heaven we won't care but we'll be one big family and we'll love each other and this will be really beautiful and the reality is that's my little bit of a story on how he's worked in me for that but he's doing the same thing for you if you're a Christian
He's calling you to fish for people he's calling you to some of you that means you're having to get to know your co-workers some of you that means you've given away so much money that the last car or house you bought you could have paid cash if you'd have just saved it some of us have
Intentionally changed our budget intentionally changed our schedules joined extra leagues started watching other people's children hosted parties hosted our community group gone out of our way to have really uncomfortable conversations for ourselves all for the sake that we believe that Jesus Christ is actually the king that he actually does have a beautiful kingdom this invitation is real
And he's brought us in and therefore we cannot be the same will not be the same cannot be the same life will not look the same there is a kingdom where there is no more brokenness where there is no more pain there is a kingdom where sinners are welcome and made new there is a kingdom
Where there's joy and hope and peace there is a kingdom where actual lions lay down with actual lambs and there's a kingdom where an actual lion of the tribe of Judah laid his life down as a lamb to sacrifice himself that we might be brought in and cause us to join him in seeing more people welcomed terrible awful sinners like us welcomed into a joyous kingdom
That they do not fit in and would not deserve outside of the blood of Jesus Christ Peter and James Andrew and John their life never looked the same every single one of them that is listed is killed for their faith John is boiled alive in oil and then put on an island in Patmos so he dies of old age but in jail melted and they have spent the last couple thousand years in the
Presence of the king awaiting for a kingdom that will descend from heaven and reclaim the earth see Jesus does it first through his own shed blood and then he comes as a conquering king and that we get to invite people in to repent and to be welcomed so I don't know where you are I don't know if you're in the zone where he's called you to follow him and there's some things you're trying to hold on to that you've
Got to drop I don't know if you're not in the practice of getting up and open your Bible and asking the Holy Spirit to lead your day but you need to start so that you might follow him and he might make you new I don't know if you're in the zone where he's currently sanctifying you and you need to just yield to him and see what he changes because it's good for your soul I don't know if some of us are in the zone where we say I'll follow Jesus I read my Bible
But we are not actively trying to see other people welcomed in and that is what we are meant to do as we are commissioned by the king that was why he brought them along was that he might make them new and that he might get more people in but the hope is that we would follow Jesus that he would make us new that we would join him in seeing more people welcome the band's going to come back up we're going to sing we're going to worship this Jesus who redeems sinners who
Welcomes the bad guys through his own shed blood that we might be made new and that we might be sent out to join him in his mission let's pray God we ask that if anybody in here thinks they're one of the good ones that they would repent that they might see their sin and be welcomed in we pray for those that you are putting pressure on that you're making eye contact with that you are calling by name and saying follow me we pray Lord that you
Would through your spirit give them the power the strength the fearlessness to let go of what's holding them back we pray that we'd be a people that wake up and follow you and we ask Lord that as you change us and make us new that you would empower us to join you to see more people brought in we might be people who proclaim this kingdom message that everybody's welcome through the blood of the cross amen amen
Thank you.